The Wedding Invitation
I woke up and it was around 11 a.m. There on the table next to me was an opened envelope beneath my glasses. I put them on and took the card out. It was a wedding invitation. Hah! As if I'd ever volunteer to go to one of those. I thought I'd read it just out of curiosity, maybe I knew who was getting married. I read the name of the groom and thought it was a joke or a mistake or that maybe it was someone else with the same name as me. I read the rest of it and saw my parents names - wait, what?!
Maybe my parents were having a go at me, playing a practical joke, except I've never know them to do so. Maybe they were trying to get a message across? I went downstairs and asked them if they saw the invitation. They calmly said yes and asked me to get ready as it was getting late.
"For what?!" I asked with an incredulous look on my face.
"Uh...your wedding?" they said with knowingly sympathetic looks on their faces.
The sheer ridiculousness of what I was hearing was only made even more unbelievable by the fact that I found myself on autopilot, getting ready and out the door, on my way to the jeweller's because true to form, I had somehow delayed picking up the necklaces and wedding bands until just now, moments before my wedding.
What if she doesn't like the necklace? I thought to myself.
I figured I could just get the jeweller to agree to let her come back and trade it in for something else if she didn't like what I got for her. And then a rather compelling and infinitely more important question hit me:
Who is she?!
I tried to recall some details about her, a name, a memory, anything and I came up blank. I realized I had never even seen this woman before and I was apparently on my way to marry her. Why couldn't I remember anything? How was everyone else so calm? How could I even go along with this? Should I call it off? I don't want to embarrass the families. Maybe this is just part of the experience, literally losing yourself and not wanting to go through with it, which is why everyone else around you is so calm and collected, helping you along and doing everything they can to streamline the process. But I still have to take my USMLE exams! I still have to do my clerkships! Apply for the NRMP, get interviews and match into a residency! Heck, I don't even have a job! Not a goddamned dollar to my name and I'm on my way to get married?! Help! Somebody? Anybody?!
The invitation!
Maybe there was something there that I could use to jog my memory. At the very least her name would be on it. As I opened the envelope again, it vaguely dawned on me that she had taken on the responsibility for the invites. Strange, because that was about the only thing I could recall. As I took the card out of the envelope, I couldn't get past the glaring grammatical mistakes.
She didn't even use Grammarly?!
That was it for me, there was no way I could go through with this.
"Call it off, call it off, call it off!"
And even as I repeatedly muttered this to myself, I found myself unable to stop the car, unable to call my parents or anyone else, unable to do anything except hurtle towards the seemingly inevitable.
"Call it off, call it off, CALL IT OFF!" I shouted as I sat up, hyperventilating in panic.
I looked at the clock and it was 4:30 p.m. I looked at the table and saw there was no envelope under my glasses and I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized it was all just a dream. I was safe. No faceless, nameless mystery woman. No necklaces and wedding bands, no wedding and most importantly, no goddamned wedding invites with grammar mistakes!
~~~END~~~
Thanks for reading this story! I Hope you enjoyed it. Have you ever had such a nightmare of a dream or experience? Any close calls or cold feet before the final "I do"? Let me know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments below!
